On a beautiful sunny day, I mistakenly parked the car right off the Generals Highway and started hiking down the gravel 'trail', and did not realize that the gravel was the Quail Flat road that would have taken me 1.5 miles to the real trailhead. Most embarassing to see cars passing me as my wife and I reached the trailhead. The extra mileage kept us from completing the loop. Have to get back there...

Hiked the Hart Tree Loop on August 28, 1999 and the Sugarbowl Loop June 20-21, 2004. One of my favorite areas! In June the wildflowers were incredible... I've also heard good things about hiking there in May when the dogwoods are blooming or in September/October when the dogwood leaves turn red.

"Perhaps the grove's single most impressive phenomenon is the almost pure, dense stand of mature sequoias in what is known as the Sugar Bowl, on Redwood Mountain Ridge just south of the peak. This stand within a larger dense concentration of sequoias called the "Sugar Bowl Grove," is one of the very few such pure sequoia forests in the Sierra; more than fifty individuals in close proximity to the trail can be viewed from one spot there. Some have speculated that the site has the heaviest volume of wood growing on one acre of any forest in the world."

"Did I ever tell you about the time I went hiking with a mule deer in the Redwood Mountain Grove in Kings Canyon National Park? I was just minding my own business moseying down the Hart Tree Loop Trail and suddenly I saw a doe in front of me. She seemed kind of curious at first, then just continued along the trail in front of me at a relaxed pace. Now and then she would push her nose into the ground and turn up a mushroom to eat. In the end I ended up hiking behind her for about two miles!"